


Demon on my Shoulder

by Afflitto



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, I'm not about that underaged stuff, Okay but hear me out, and no hint toward that being a thing, and then there is a possibility of such things, but yeah, if I continue this Lovino will age up tho, just I wanted to list that pairing since the fic centers around the two, there is no ACTUAL relationship b/c that is underage and very no
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5422907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afflitto/pseuds/Afflitto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A clergy's apprentice must summon a demon to save his abbey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Demon on my Shoulder

**Author's Note:**

> A request by tumblr user allinavicecream's request! AU premise based off of [this art](http://kkkkan.tumblr.com/post/132480365023/how-about-the-great-demon-lord-gilbert-becoming)

The stamp of the army’s feet and the hurl of screams shook the inner recesses of the abbey.  The monks worked to fortify the walls, running across the battlements with their white robes flapping in the wind, smoke and fire a seething backdrop to the night sky.  

 

Young Lovino Vargas had been shooed into the tunnels with the rest of the clergy apprentices, where they stood a huddled mass in the darkness.  The others jostled and pushed against him.  Sobbing echoed in the corners.  Water dripped over head.  Each fresh salvo of attack, the group flinched with a collective cry.

“Fuck…” Lovino thought.  “Fuck…”  He shoved back at one of the kids who had crowded him into the wall.  Each breath cut short behind grit teeth.  Hot tears peppered his eyes.  Beneath his robes, his fists were clenched. 

“Oi, _move_.”  Lovino started shoving through the crowd, one hand on the stone wall as he fought his way back toward the mouth of the tunnel.    “I know what to do—I know what to do—“  He elbowed one of the other apprentices in the face, muttering a silent prayer as his hand slipped into the pocket with his rosary, then unlatched the door and sprinted up the spiral tower in the center of the abbey.

The tower was dark and cold; above the abbey, he could hear the crackle of flames and the thud of arrows into bodies.  He ran until he spilled out the trap door in the main study, a circular room crowded with stacked bookcases.  A desk huddled in the center, green light still pooling out under the lantern there.

Lovino started to climb.  Shelf by shelf, he scaled toward the top, where a series of books had been crammed into the space where the tower pinched into a spire. 

There were two books there

One yellow and one red.

_Summoning Angels_

_Summoning Demons_

Perched there, he steadied himself with his feet and one hand as he reached up.

And hesitated.

His fingers brushed the Yellow book but he flinched.

“Angels aren’t enough.  Not against this…”

With a sharp intake of breath, he snatched the red book and cradled it open on his knees.

The papers were worn but pulsed heat, even as he skimmed his fingers across the diagrams.  Shaking, he choked out the incantations–

–and, with each whispered word, he felt his voice grow in power until it reverberated, swallowing up the sounds of carnage outside.

His tongue felt as hot as the lashing flames.  His heart pounded.  Waves of turmoil washed over him until he felt murky and heavy inside.

He could hardly hear his own voice—now a shout—for the ringing in his ears.

The door flung open.

The main clergy—robes charred, face gashed open—stared up at him.  “Lovino—what have you done—“

Lovino stared down, eyes blank, and choked out the last words like a dying coal. 

“You can’t control what you’re unleashing—“

Lovino’s eyes slid shut.

He fell.

There was no impact.  

Phantom pain washed over Lovino.  A dull roar seared through the ringing in his ears—tongues of flame lapping at his consciousness until even the insides of his eyelids burned red.

“Release the boy, demon—“

Lovino felt the ripple of muscle beneath his cheek as his weight was shifted.  The demon snarled.  Its voice grated into a chuckle.

“Yeah.  Have fun trying to boss me around, old man.  You actually thought someone like you could enslave the King of Demons?”  

Lovino’s eyes slid open.  The demon was startlingly pale, with a sharp jaw and two horns twisting from a crop of white hair.  Red eyes gleamed even in the dark.  His wings, jagged and black, spanned the entire room as he snapped them open and prowled closer to the clergyman. 

The clergy stumbled back but thrust up the wooden cross at the end of his rosary.  “Back—“

“You shouldn’t have summoned me in the first place, hm?”  A slow grin revealed pointed teeth.  With the flick of his wrist, the cross burst into flame—

–the clergy yelped and flung it across the room—

“He…he didn’t,” Lovino rasped. He shoved free of the demon’s grasp; he wavered but stood firm.

The demon blinked down at the boy.  “You’re just a snack for later.  Shut your trap while the grown-ups are talking.”

Lovino hissed through grit teeth.  “It. wasn’t. him.”  

Drawing up, Lovino snatched at the leather hanging from a collar around the demon’s neck and yanked him down to face him–

–the young boy matched the demon glower for glower, icy calm in contrast to the heart hammering in his chest and the pain eating away at every joint until the demon jerked back.

The leather held.  The Demon grunted and snarled.  “The hell—how the hell does a twerp like you have the power to contain me—“

“Lovino…send it back…send that demon back…before it’s too late…” the clergy pleaded.  He’d collapsed to the floor.

Breathing heavily, Lovino shook his head.  “I have to–I have to finish what I started.”

Teeth grit, the demon shook his head, but allowed his wiry body to relax.  He leered down at Lovino.  “Fine.  This could be interesting.  What does a pipsqueak like you need of a demon.  No less a clergy in training.  Fine.  I’ll play your little game for a while.”

Lovino scoffed.  “Yeah, fine, pretend like you have a choice if that makes you feel better. “  He let the leather strap slip loose from his grasp.  “Destroy the people attacking the Abbey.  I want them wiped out.”

“S’that all?” the Demon said.  “Humans are violent little fuckers aren’t they.”  He licked his teeth as his lips twitched into a feral grin.  His eyes narrowed into slits.  “What’s your name, pipsqueak.”

“L-Lovino,” Lovi said.  

The demon scoffed.  “I’m Gilbert.  King of the Demons.”  He tugged sharply at Lovino’s bangs as he loomed down to stare.  “So.  Lovino.  You summoned a Demon.  Your heart is pure and your will is strong.  But as you grow, you’ll find the world destroys those qualities in a man.  Be careful, Lovino.  The minute you start to falter, _I’ll_ be the one in control.”  He winked, patting his cheek, and drifted past with easy grace, claws ripping from his hands as he threw himself out the window and into the bloodshed.


End file.
